Leaked Patch Notes

[savaughn]

Looks fake to me, but I'd agree that it's definitely well crafted if it is fake. There are a couple of things that really stick out to me. Overall, however, it's the fact that there are a lot less items that are "fixed" bugs as opposed to new features. That feels like a dead giveaway to me. My general feeling is that it's a wish list cleverly concealed.

Shapeshifting into an animal form will now remove polymorph effects.

This one doesn't make sense to me. When pollied, none of your abilities work. If you are polymorphed, you can't shift into animal form. This would require a LOT of recoding to pull off and doesn't seem like there is a demand to justify the work this would require.

Improved Mana Shield - Design changed. Instead of increasing the amount absorbed, it now decreases the mana lost per point of damage taken by 10/20%.

Ok, this is a complete redesign. What's more, it's not a unique one - this is basically "we're going back to D2 mode with this". I don't buy this in the least. Mana Shield is very functional in its current form and I'm willing to bet that the current form (vs. the D2 original) was argued and discussed for months and months before they came out with the final Mage class. Again, it looks like a wish list.

Cone of Cold - Now subject to diminishing returns in PvP. This is considered a slowing effect.

Frost Nova - Now subject to diminishing returns in PvP. This is considered an immobilizing effect.

These feel like nails in the coffin. I've read way too many times that central to the WoW PvP design was to avoid nerfing abilities in PvP. D2 was a horrible mass of PvP nerfs with abilities working completely differently vs. players than monsters. Avoiding this was one of the design guidelines. Neither Frost Nova nor Cone of Cold is so overpowering in PvP that it needed to be crippled in a way that would kill the design guidelines. Even if it was "needed", I especially don't see why this would go in before Battlegrounds.

That said, I could very well be wrong. It just doesn't feel legit to me.